XanEdu Earns Campus Technology Innovators Award

ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- XanEdu, the leading faculty-preferred provider of custom course materials and textbooks, has been recognized as a 2011 Campus Technology Innovator for the development and use of the XanEdu iPad App at NYU Stern School of Business.  

Campus Technology announced the winners on May 15, 2011.  NYU Stern and the XanEdu iPad App project was one of 10 winners selected in six categories out of nearly 400 entries.  

XanEdu's work at NYU Stern was chosen because XanEdu's approach and product development methodology involved direct input from hundreds of students across North America.  This process enabled the company to truly understand how specific features could enhance the student learning experience and help students engage more with the digital content being delivered to them.

Maya Georgieva, Assistant Director, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Stern School of Business, New York University, stated that as a result of this student-centered approach, "97% of the students surveyed indicated that they would recommend XanEdu's approach to digital course materials."

NYU Stern was in need of a solution to meet the demands of a mobile student body while offering flexible learning opportunities for its full-time and part-time working professionals. NYU Stern's CITL partnered with XanEdu on a pilot program in the fall 2010 term that involved more than 500 students in over 50 courses.  XanEdu delivered digital course packs on the iPad and asked students to contribute to the development of collaborative tools which could support group work on handheld devices.

The result was the XanEdu iPad App, which was approved by Apple and released in December of 2010.

"Students have very specialized needs when it comes to reading class materials," said Tyler Steben, VP, Custom Publishing at XanEdu Publishing, Inc. "We found that most e-readers fall short of these needs for classroom use.  For example, our nationwide sampling uncovered a great need to support a workflow specific to the study habits of students in higher education. This led to the development of the XanEdu iPad App's 'magic back button' that simulates the flipping back and forth of pages within a digital environment.  

Steben adds that, "We're honored to be recognized.  We're also honored to have partnered with NYU Stern and the CITL because of the leadership role they took in addressing mobile learning challenges.  Students can now carry less, can engage with content more, collaborate with their peers to a greater degree - and they can even have a little fun while studying."

XanEdu held a follow-up focus group on the campus of NYU in December, just prior to the official release of the XanEdu iPad App in Apple's App Store.

"When we finally presented the XanEdu iPad App back to the students, they got large smiles on their faces," said Steben.  "You could tell that this was a tool that they want to use in the classroom and were truly excited to have been a part of the process. That's the biggest reward that you can hope for in working in an educational environment - to have students exited about learning."

George Miron, one of the NYU Stern students involved in the pilot program said, "I was really impressed that XanEdu moved so quickly and proactively to make creative use of the iPad only 4 months after its official release."

XanEdu and NYU Stern plan to continue collaborating on future technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience.  

SOURCE XanEdu